Dell XPS 15 (Skylake) 9550 Owner's Lounge

Yes, there are horrible issues affecting the docks after this BIOS upgrade. Same as the old issues that plagued the TB15 and older firmware. What I noticed was a rapid freeze/connect/disconnect for usb devices (mouse/keyboard). Plugging them straight into the laptop works perfectly.

This is happening to the WD15/TB15/TB16 docks and on multiple machines (2 generations of xps13 and 15), so something in the usb/tb firmware updated in this BIOS version maybe? Reverting to the previous BIOS version doesn't fix it, but that could be because the recently affected firmware/drivers/whatever wasn't updated or included with that BIOS update.

I'll look for older BIOS versions to flash and see if I can regain sanity.

Here's a link to the Driver archive:
http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/xps-15-9550-laptop.html#Drivers

 

At Reddit someone wrote reverting to 1.2.25 worked.
Do file a official complaint to Dell, sometimes they happen to update updates a few days later.

 

Hey guys.
Tempted to get an used 9550 FHD with warranty, instead of FHD 9560 (UHD 9560 is quite a bit more costly in the UK). My workload is mostly in sRGB (rather than the fuller AdobeRGB), also I might not need UHD due to some scaling issues / and won't need graphics card much (960M is plenty). Are there anything I should be aware of between 9550 vs 9560? Will pick one with bigger battery either way. Keen to hear your thoughts.

I noticed that 9560 has a FHD sRGB screen - does the FHD 9550 have the same panel?

 

I have seen several posts here where people documented the same FHD screens for the 9550 & 9560; you can do a search to confirm that is (still) the case.

The 9550 brightness adjustment via F11 and F12 makes the speakers crackle; I think that was fixed on the 9560.

Both 9550 and 9560 suffer from cooling problems; you should consider a CPU & GPU repaste, undervolt. Even with extreme modding, the 9560 i7 throttles a lot when pushed (a couple of extreme modders seemed to have resolved this).

These laptops are great but far from perfect. It does seem Dell released the 9560 with far fewer major issues than the 9550 had at release.

You should research the "bugs" which are well documented here. And get an extended warranty.

 

Can someone tell me how do i find out how many sticks of ram i have on my dell xps 9550? It has i5-6300 hq processor. I assume its 2 sticks right as oppose to 1 stick of 8gb? Is there a trick that dell and most computer companies do so you would have to buy 2 full sticks to get the 16gb ram even if you have 8gb?


So if i want to upgrade to 12gb or 16gb, i would have to buy either 1 8gb ram stick or 2 of them?


Also i mentioned a while back that my laptop lags when i have lot of chrome windows open. I have a lot of them open. I would have at least 7 chrome tabs and each one probably has minimum 5 tabs on each one. So does this mean upgrading ram to 12gb or 16gb is useless? My cpu usage is also pretty high as well sometimes.

 

The system should have 2x SODIMM DDR4 slots. You can check the current ram installation, by downloading CPUZ, goto SPD tab - drop down it should show you how many. Alternatively if you're running Windows 10, open task manager (cont+alt+delete), performance tab, look under memory - it will say how many is installed currently.

Keep task manager open, and see how much RAM you're currently using. More RAMs will help to have fewer tab reloads, when I upgraded my old office laptop from 8GB to 16GB it felt overdue - though SSD will give better performance gain per $ spent.

Upgrading seems simple, though it's not the simplest RAM upgrades - only do it if you're sure you know what you're doing / take it to a local IT shop for them to do if you're not sure. See here:

If you have 2x4GB currently, to get 16GB you need to get new 2x8GB RAM. If you currently have 1x8GB DDR4, great, try to find a similar module to that. 1x16GB is also an option, so you can get another later (costly option). Make sure you get comparable sticks where possible (e.g. match 2400Mhz with 2400Mhz rather than 2133Mhz)

 

Hi there. It says slots used 2 of 2. Speed is 2133.

In Use 7gb (156mb) 1.2gb available

13.3/16.4gb commited 596gb cached

348mb paged pool 263mb nonpaged pool

So that mean i have to get either one or two 8gb ram then right?

Can you give me link of ram on amazon that would be compatible with this laptop?



It shows on the side



Memory

7.0/7.9 89% memory


This number varies between 65%-90% when i have my chrome tabs on.

 

Another question i want to ask. I have my dell laptop connected to an external monitor that is 24' and it has 1920 x 1200 resolution. I use the external monitor as my main screen... the laptop screen as my secondary screen.


If i get another monitor... could i do dual monitor? Thus have 2 monitors right next to each other and also use the laptop screen as my 3rd monitor to the side?? I heard this involves a video card but is my video card strong enough for something like this? My laptop is connected to the external monitor with a hdmi to hdmi cable. However, i only have 1 hdmi slot on the dell. So what would i need besides another monitor to do this? I assume another hdmi to hdmi cable but what else? And how would this be connected etc?

 

You need 2.

 

It is possible but you would be better using a USB-C - video adapter.

 

Is a USB-C-video adapter all that i would need and nothing else besides 2 monitors?


Can you post one from amazon that is good for this?


Something like this?


https://www.amazon.com/CHOETECH-Thu...1890629&sr=8-3&keywords=usb-c+to+hdmi+adapter



I cant find the best one there.

 

Unfortunately TB16 USB is still broken with latest (8/7) TB3 drivers and firmware (on 1.2.29 BIOS).

 

That's because there is no new firmware, just the fw update utility is updated to be compatible with new drivers

 

Use a USB-C to display port adapter and connect to the first monitor, then daisy chain the second monitor using display port. Your first monitor need to support Display Port 1.2 and you need to enable the daisy chain feature in the monitor.

This do not work for 2x 4K but for our 2x 2.5K it works fine!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Hi, on my system (9550 with Creators update and bios 1.2.29) the latest Intel Thunderbolt firmware update 4.16.00.005 does not recognize thunderbolt drivers as installed and cannot update firmware. Actually i've installed Thunderbolt coltroller driver v 16.3.61.275_A03, but is the same with previous 16.1.47.275,A02.
previous thunderbolt firmware updates went fine. Anyone with the same issue?

 

The firmware files included in this version are identical to files from Intel_TBT3_FW_UPDATE_NVM16_A03_02.12.07.exe (from March 2016), so if you already applied NVM16 before there is no need to update again. Running the new utility 4.16.00.005 just gives a message that Thunderbolt Firmware is already updated.

 

Thank you very much. Yes, i've already installed the previous update.

 

Dell is replacing my laptop with similar or better laptops. Is it going to be 9550 or 9560.

I have 9550 with i7, 16gb, 512gb SSD.

 

2 minutes while I warm this baby up

 

Ordered an used 9550 (6700HQ, FHD, NVME 256GB) into the office. Pretty impressive would be an understatement.

(noticed display flick on lower brightness though).

 

In Windows power options, "minimum processor state" disappeared (among others). I tried reviving it with the following with no luck.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\893dee8e-2bef-41e0-89c6-b55d0929964c

Add a DWORD with the name Attributes and assign the value ‘ 1‘ to Remove or ‘ 2‘ to add the option in Power Options.

==> I can see it is at 100% via pwrcfg -energy which was my last setting (and shows in the .reg files but would rather have the old windows drop down menus.)

Any tips?

 

Have you been messing about uninstalling anything intel thermal related?

Probably bugger all help if you don't use macrium but I just load the backups into the macrium VM and check when the problem started then restore the one before that.

 

Nope...

 

A bunch of rescent updates at Dell support site.
BIOS 1.2.29 which wrecks dock USB connection is still up ;(

Realtek USB Audio Driver
Enhancements:
- Added support for new platforms with MaxxAudio 7.1
- Improved the driver stability
Version 6.3.9600.85, A04
Release date 14 Aug 2017 Last Updated 14 Aug 2017
http://www.dell.com/support/home/ie/en/iebsdt1/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=80TGT

Realtek USB GBE Ethernet Controller Driver
Enhancements:
- Improved the stability when the system is resumed from the sleep mode.
Version 2.43.2017.0505, A05
Release date 15 Aug 2017 Last Updated 21 Aug 2017
http://www.dell.com/support/home/ie/en/iebsdt1/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=4TRK6

Realtek USB GBE Ethernet Controller Driver applicable for TB16/WD15/DS1000 Dock
(!? I thought the former one was applicable to the docks)
- Improved the stability when the system is resumed from the sleep mode.
Version 2.43.2017.0505, A05
Release date 18 Aug 2017 Last Updated 18 Aug 2017
http://www.dell.com/support/home/ie/en/iebsdt1/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=3XTRW

ASIX USB to Serial / Parallel Port Driver
Fixes
- Fix issue that system BT may not work after resuming from hibernation.
Version 2.0.2.0, A03
Release date 17 Aug 2017 Last Updated 17 Aug 2017
http://www.dell.com/support/home/ie/en/iebsdt1/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=WGNN6

Dell Command | PowerShell Provider
Fixes & Enhancements
- Support for the following new BIOS attributes:
SupportAssistSystemResolution category
MpmCfg
Performance category
AmdCpuCore
AmdThreadControl
AdvancedConfigurations category
OneTBSystemMemoryLimitEnable
VirtualizationSupport category
AmdViEnable
AmdVtEnable
USBConfiguration category
RearUsb3Ports
FrontUsbPortCollection
UsbPortsInternal2
SystemConfiguration
TabletButtonIllumination
Minisas0
Minisas1
Minisas2
Minisas3
TpmSecurity category
TpmClear
security category
Computrace
Preenabled category
RuggedDeskDockNicPxe
post behaviour category
MacAddrPassThru
SignOfLifeByKbdBacklight
SignOfLifeByDisplay
SignOfLifeByAudio
VirtualizationSupport category
IntelVMDTechnology
PcieLinkSpeed
Version 1.3.0.259, A00
Release date 17 Aug 2017 Last Updated 17 Aug 2017
http://www.dell.com/support/home/ie/en/iebsdt1/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=39J8P

Dell TPM 2.0 Firmware Update Utility
Fixes
- Fixed issue which TPM may become unavailable under Windows because of slow response on start up
- Fixed issue which TPM may become unavailable under Windows after upgrade from version 1.3.0.1 to 1.3.1.0
- Fixed issue which TPM may become unavailable under Windows intermittently in a very rare case, under stress test
Enhancements
- Compatibility improvement for Windows 10 Creators Update
Version 1.3.2.8, A02
Release date 18 Aug 2017 Last Updated 18 Aug 2017
http://www.dell.com/support/home/ie/en/iebsdt1/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=RF87D

 

Randomly a load have showed as within 30 days for the 9560 but it seems far from the truth, the IME is dated December 16 and wants to repair the existing installation rather than update it and the chipsets october 2016 so before anyone goes on an update frenzy they should check against what is installed as I expect Dell have yet again screwed things up.

FYI my chipset is already on the "new" drivers to back this up as well.

 

Hey all this is a general question but related to this thread since i have this laptop.


Do most of you have a password for this laptop when you start it up? And if you do, does it prevent someone from turning on your computer etc? Like imagine you turn off the computer. Then you or someone else turns it on. Can they hack or do anything to this computer if you put a password to it? The other thing is.. assuming you put a password and you forgot your password, does that mean you cannot access your computer and will have to do a complete reinstall of the computer? I use windows 10. Im trying to make my computer more secure

 

Your data can be read unless you encrypt the hard drive, if you have win 10 pro you can use bitlocker.

 

So what is the point of the password then when starting up the computer?

I have windows 10 pro. What about axcrypt? I use this for certain documents etc.

 

To stop opportunists. It won't stop someone sticking the drive in another computer though. Then you can read the data.
Axcrypt is a 3rd party solution. It encrypts files the same as using a zipped archive. It doesn't offer full drive encryption like bitlocker and some enterprise solutions (afaik)

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

I have a password set up in the BIOS which apparently 'travels' with the hard drive - is this not case?

 

It isn't a hard drive password as the SSD's they provide do not support it, it's just one to boot the laptop.

 

I replaced both hard drives that my machine came with - that rather weird 32gb msata + 1 tb spinner combo - with a 256gb samsung M.2 nvme and a 1tb samsung 850 evo, a very speedy setup. It looks to me that the bios lock applies to the evo.

Just to clarify - the 256 M.2 is the boot drive.

 

Yes the Sata ones will enable the drive password but not the NVMe ones, I forgot about those

 

....... so, given that it's the evo that's 'locked' the computer will not boot until
password entered!

 

Despite that I could read everything on the NVMe drive within 5 minutes of stealing the laptop

 

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=NXVMP
Dell XPS 15 9550 1.3.0 System BIOS
Fixes & Enhancements
- Enhance dock's audio performance
Version 1.3.0
Release date 28 Aug 2017 Last Updated 28 Aug 2017

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=7X8Y6
Intel Thunderbolt Controller Driver
Enhancements:
- Added support for Windows 10 Creators Update
- Added check-box to each notification not to show it again.
Version 16.3.61.275, A03
Release date 28 Aug 2017 Last Updated 28 Aug 2017 (seems to be a re-release)

I wander if they fixed the messed up USB on TB16 and WD15 docks?

 

USB is back to working fine for me on a TB16

 

I could be wrong but from my experience it looks like that the new BIOS has fixed the random freeze with 950 Pro under Samsung NVMe driver newer than 2.0. Maybe it's the "Enhance NVMe support" thing of the last version?

 

Also note that dell just released a new Intel AHCI/Raid driver 15.7.3.1019 (so they bypassed the 15.5.x series entirely).

I will test this version for a few days before re-testing the samsung 2.2 again.

 

Not sure why, but the 1.3.0 bios won't install for me (pops up the "run as admin" dialog and then disappears...)

 

Hey! I'm new here, so If I post this in the wrong place, I'm sorry. I have a 4k, i7, and 16gb of ram XPS. When I swipe up with three fingers ( or windows + tab), there is a very noticeable lag, but when I change the resolution to 1080p the animation is perfectly smooth. I've been trying to solve this problem for a while, any ideas? Thanks!

 

Too optimistic Although the freeze is fixed, the "auto-cold-boot-when-waking-from-hibernate" problem is still there

 

Hi there,

I have the i5 4k model and got the laggy animations as well. Unfortunately I don't think there's anything we can do for it. In normal desktop use, the laptop is using the Intel's iGPU which probably just isn't powerful enough for smooth animations at 4k.

 

No issue here, try using non Dell video drivers.

 

Tried drivers from Windows Update, several from Dell and newest 22.xx ones from Intel but all have comparable performance. Anyway it's only small visual issue and probably differs from person how much they notice or care about it. In similar way as some people said older flagship Android phones are as smooth as comparable iPhones while others saw small lag and dropped frames.

 

Rip

 

New BIOS 1.3.0 still has bug.
Default CPU / GPU fan : ~3600rpm

BIOS 1.2.25: default cpu / gpu fan : ~2400rpm

 

Bug or feature?

 

That is bug.
I had downgrade old bios.

 

So it is what Dell call a feature, or a HOTFIX.

*gets coat.